Details - An account of an embassy to the court of the Teshoo Lama, in Tibet : containing a narrative of a journey through Bootan, and part of Tibet

An account of an embassy to the court of the Teshoo Lama, in Tibet

Title

An account of an embassy to the court of the Teshoo Lama, in Tibet : containing a narrative of a journey through Bootan, and part of Tibet

By

Turner, Samuel, 1759-1802 , author

Davis, Samuel, 1760-1819 , illustrator
Saunders, Robert, active 1782-1790, , contributor
W. Bulmer and Co., , printer
G. & W. Nicol, , bookseller

Type

Book

Material

Published material

Publication info

London, Printed by W. Bulmer and Co, 1800

Notes

Some of the plates signed: Lieut. S Davis del, James Basire sc. One aquatint by De la Motte after Stubbs

English Short Title Catalog, | T136507

In 1783, at the opportunity presented by a new Panchen (or Teshoo) Lama, Bengal governor-general Warren Hastings sent a deputation to Tibet and Bhutan in the hope of promoting British-Indian trade across the Himalayas. Samuel Turner (1759-1802), an army officer in the East India Company, was appointed leader of the mission. His journal, offering first-hand descriptions of these countries, was originally published in 1800 and remained the only such English-language work for more than half a century. Assisted by the botanist and surgeon Robert Saunders and the surveyor and illustrator Samuel Davis, Turner interweaves geographical and scientific observations with descriptions of social and religious customs; the vivid account of his reception by the infant Panchen Lama is of particular note. The introduction sketches the history of Bengal-Bhutan relations and George Bogle's prior mission, while later sections deal with Tibet and the influence of China. This was and remains an invaluable account of eighteenth-century diplomacy